Northern Haze was a quartet of Inuit musicians from the remote hamlet of Igloolik who had collaborated in various bands throughout the seventies before joining forces in Northern Haze. The band finished second in a talent show in Iqaluit but managed to attract enough attention to be given the chance to record its debut record in Ottawa just one year after its foundation. It took roughly another year for this debut album to see the light of day and the band played festivals in Yellowknife and Vancouver to support the release. This album is believed to be the first-ever indigenous-language rock album. The band made its dream come true with the release of this album but members of their community criticized the four young men for mixing traditional Inuit music and tales with contemporary Western music somewhere between heavy metal, hard rock and country music.

The most outstanding element about the album are the melodic vocals that are inspired by a cool rock and roll spirit. The energetic guitar solos vary between blues and hard rock genres and are performed with passion even though the skills are still fairly limited. The rhythm section is the steady backbone of the raw record. The four musicians were supported keyboarder Ed Simm and Randall Prescott on harmonica during the recording sessions and their instruments add even more diversity to an already interesting release.

Highlights on this passionate debut record are the short and heavy opener ''Qailaurit'' inspired by early doom and heavy metal, the vivid ''Puigo'' with its outstanding guitar solo and atmospheric keyboard layers, the only track with English lyrics entitled ''Trust'' that comes around as haunting country ballad with melancholic piano sounds and peaceful acoustic guitar sounds and heartwarming timeless closing country tune ''Uvaguk'' with its beautiful harmonica sounds that could easily play in any pub around the world. Despite the rough production and the northern background of the band, this album has an infectious passion and warmth. 

Metal purists might have some trouble with this record that combines blues rock, country rock, doom metal, hard rock and heavy metal but any rock music enthusiast with an open mind should listen to this historical record that has stood the test of time and still sounds particularly entertaining nowadays. The band didn't have the financial means to record another record for a long period of time and seemed to have fallen apart when their bassist died of cancer and their singer got murdered about a decade ago. The band however reunited with two new members only two years ago and actually released its sophomore record thirty-two years after its first strike. The adventurous rock and roll spirit that led to the band's first genre-breaking output has been rekindled. The rock and roll flame is still burning in the Far North. Let's hope it will never be extinguished.

Final rating: 80%

Listen to the album via Bandcamp: https://northernhaze.bandcamp.com/releases

Ladies and gentlemen!

I have decided to make it a tradition to present my personal awards for the past cinematic year in late January. Here are the movies that have impressed me most in their respective categories between January first 2018 and December thirty-first 2018. 

Best Original Song: Venom by Eminem

Best Original Score: BlacKkKlansman

Best Sound Editing: A Quiet Place

Best Sound Mixing: Bad Times at the El Royale

Best Visual Effects: Alpha

Best Film Editing: BlacKkKlansman

Best Costume Design: Rampant

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Thugs of Hindostan

Best Cinematography: Roma

Best Animated Feature Film: Isle of Dogs

Best Foreign Language Film: Champion

Best Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman

Best Original Screenplay: A or B

Best Supporting Actress: Sasaki Miyu in Shoplifters

Best Supporting Actor: Kairi Jyo in Shoplifters

Best Actress: Yalitza Aparicio in Roma

Best Actor: Aamir Khan in Thugs of Hindostan

Best Director: Ren Pengyuan in A or B

Best Picture: Champion

Longhouse is a doom metal trio from Ottawa named after the type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room buildings of the Iroquois tribes. The lyrics also reference the unsettling history of the relationships between Canadian First Nations and white settlers. Title track ''Vanishing'' talks about the cruel fate of numerous vanished First Nations members, particularly women, who still get kidnapped, abused and buried in the woods as we speak. ''No Name, No Marker'' references the abuse that religious institutions made First Nations go through in order to assimilate them, dishonour their cultures and tear their families apart. The process of reconciliation has progressed in Canada over the past few years but the scars remain even after the wounds have healed. Lyrics like these are instructive, meaningful and relevant.

The music is as bleak and desperate as it needs to be in order to express the unspeakable sorrows First Nations all around the world have gone through. Longhouse plays uneasy funeral doom with thunderous guitar riffs, a steady, heavy and almost burdening rhythm section and fierce guttural vocals. The drowning darkness is at times intertwined with sorrowful psychedelic guitar effects. 

The brilliant album closer ''The Vigil'' works best in that regard and is an epic doom metal monster going beyond the ten-minute mark. Longhouse collaborated with genre colleagues Loviatar on this track. Their guitarist Shane Whitbread performs additional guitars and bleak keyboard sounds in the track's haunting finale. Loviatar's singer J.D. Gobeil adds his haunting and psychedelic mantra-like clean vocals that contrast yet harmonize the guttural performance by Josh Cayer perfectly. It's great to see that Ottawa's small but impressive doom metal scene is so tight-knit.

Longhouse's debut record Earth from Water was already gripping but its second output Vanishing is a great leap forward. The drum sound has improved, the song writing has become more ambitious and the vocals sound grittier than before. In addition to this, the lyrics are haunting and inspiring. This album was even nominated for a Juno Award, the Canadian price for outstanding achievements in the record industry. Give this band and especially this particular album a chance.

Final rating: 90%

Longhouse is one of many outstanding new doom metal bands from Ottawa along with Loviatar and Monobrow. The group's first release Earth from Water including six tracks with a total running time of thirty-four minutes convinces with balanced soundscapes. 

The riffs are thunderous and heavy but sometimes shift to melodic and psychedelic passages which works particularly well in the strong opener and title track ''Earth from Water''. The sorrowful ''Gehenna Gate'' convinces with atmospheric spoken word samples and occasional hard rock guitar solos that add some diversity to an otherwise intentionally monotonous track. Epic closer ''Whispers and Storms'' comes around with a surprisingly steady rhythm section inspired by traditional heavy metal of the late seventies and early eighties.

There are only a few minor issues with this strong debut record. The cymbals sound particularly tinny which can become slightly nerve-firing. The harsh vocals add to the atmosphere of the music but sound quite monotonous and repetitive at times and would benefit from a more diversified and at times more melodic approach.

In the end, Longhouse's Earth from Water is a strong doom metal debut that underlines Ottawa's excellent underground metal scene. If you like particularly sinister doom metal with harsh vocals that doesn't forget about its origins from the seventies and eighties, you should give this record a spin and support the dynamic trio.

Final rating: 80%

After a grilsy yet intellectual first movie and an intense psychological duel for the sequel, this third entry in the franchise deals with the philosophical aspect of forgiveness. Serial killer John Kramer is on his deathbed but he keeps organizing his twisted games in order to make people value their lives until his final breath. He asks an accomplice to kidnap a doctor who must make sure the serial killer survives until his latest victim succeeds in completing a series of particularly intriguing tests as a broken family father must decide whether he forgives those who are responsible for his son's tragic death that also destroyed his life. However, it's not only his latest victim who has to decide to be forgiving as another person is also playing a game without even knowing it.

The strongest element of the movie is its philosophical depth when the viewers needs to wonder how they would react under specific circumstances. Could you forgive a driver who hits your son so badly that he dies? How would you feel about a witness to this accident who doesn't intervene? What would you do to a judge that spares the reckless driver from a harsh sentence? The movie teaches us that we are all monsters inside but have different capacities in controling them.

This third entry is also the one with the greatest depth regarding the dying serial killer. One understands his motivations better than in previous installments. He is open to discuss his points of view on his deathbed which gives us a strangely fascinating yet gloomily repelling insight.

The film's stunning conclusion manages to surprise yet again as all loose ends are tied together and lead to a dramatic showdown that viewers won't see coming. The scriptwriters still manage to add intellectual depth at the most unexpected moments. The clever ending is rewarding and already leaves the viewers wanting to watch the next installment.

The philosophical aspect of forgiveness makes this movie stand out. The dealy traps are slightly less twisted than before but much more personal for the test subjects. Thanks to this fresh approach, this film is only slightly less intriguing than the strong immediate predecessor. Fans of the series can't get around watching this film. Saw III underlines the franchise's status as greatest horror film series of the new millennium.